72,500 spectators experienced a tremendous anniversary weekend of the DTM at the Nürburgring that ended on Sunday in an Audi show, with Edoardo Mortara clinching his third victory this season. The victory in the DTM’s 50th visit to the Nürburgring also marked the 50th triumph of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline that brought all four cars into the points on Sunday.
In the race, as has often been the case this season, the Audi RS 5 DTM was the most powerful car. Mortara immediately made up two positions at the start, subsequently stayed on the heels of the leading trio and had a clear track when the three cars in front of him pitted early for the tire change. Mortara only pitted on lap 28 and returned to the track in second place. After overtaking the Mercedes-Benz of the fastest driver in qualifying, Lucas Auer, the Audi driver brought victory home in commanding style.
“On the last lap, I was even able to jest a little with my team over the radio,” said Mortara. “In qualifying, we were struggling a bit, but on used tires, my car was perfect the whole weekend. The only critical moment was the pit stop when I nearly slipped off track on entering the pit lane – that was really hairy.”
Leader of the standings Marco Wittmann saw the checkered flag on Sunday in third place, trailing birthday child Lucas Auer. Wittmann still came close to being intercepted on the finish line by Mattias Ekström, who drove practically with no holds barred, having battled his way forward from position ten on the grid to fourth place. Ekström had youngster Nico Müller in tow, who even improved by nine positions in the race. Last year’s winner Miguel Molina completed the strong performance delivered by Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in position ten.
“The 50th victory of our team in the DTM is definitely special“, says team boss Hans-Jürgen Abt. „We celebrated our first one 15 years ago with Laurent at the Nürburgring as well. Now Edo with a tremendous race completed the 50 for us. My thanks go to all our drivers and particularly to the whole team. We arrived here with the maxim ‘now more than ever’ – and everyone abided by that. I’m incredibly proud of our squad which is fully motivated to clinch the title for Audi in spite of the advantage that BMW has. That’s why the party for our 50th DTM victory still has to wait a little.”
